[Velin]

Hi everybody, Janel asked me to write here about the palm seeds I'm using for carving. One of mine favorite is Queens palm seed. The color of the shell is brown, but varies from pale to dark brown in different Queen palm trees, also the size, and the shape. From nearly spheric to twice longer than wide. The shel is so tick, that nearly no space for the seed. As material is hard and can be polished well. About the size - I've never found longer than 2 cm (less than one inch). It's plesant to carv, with fine structure.
Other palm shell I like to carv is of the olive palm seed (Elaeis guineensis). The color is black and I've never found any piece of ebony with so fine structure. The size and the shape of the seeds varies - it is nearly impossible to find two seeds with same size and shape.

[Janel]

Hi Velin,

These varieties sound very interesting for carving. Is the carvable part of the olive palm seed actually black? What do you carve from these palm seeds?

Janel